Estate Developers ask for soft loan from govt

The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) on Friday appealed to the government to make available soft loans and land to improve on housing delivery in the country.

Mr Brandford Daniel Kwame Adu, President of GREDA and Member of Parliament for Okere, said the association needed a 100 billion cedi revolving fund to provide 2,400 housing units a year.

Mr Adu was inaugurating committees of the association in Accra to develop an inventory of local producers of building materials and examine contracts as well identify suitable lands for development among other things. The committees included those on land and legal affairs, education, research and development.

Mr Adu said the association, which was established 14 years ago, had set standards and charged members to work assiduously by developing new ideas and concepts in the years ahead.

Wing Commander Charles O. Addo (rtd), Vice President of GREDA, said in countries including Germany and Holland, governments had put in place constructional funds in form of soft loans to estate developers to put up quality put affordable housing units and this was creating jobs for most of the working class

He urged government to adopt those innovations to enable Ghana to solve its housing problems. Wing Commander Addo, an estate developer, cited high interest rates, high cost of building materials and multiple sales of land as some of the challenges facing the association.